Beaton, Sir Cecil

Beaton, Sir Cecil (Walter Hardy)

(born Jan. 14, 1904, London, Eng.—died Jan. 18, 1980, Broadchalke, Salisbury, Wiltshire) British photographer and designer. When he received his first camera at age 11, he began making portraits of his sisters. In the 1920s he became staff photographer at Vanity Fair and Vogue. In Beaton's exotic and bizarre portraits, the sitter is only one element of an overall decorative composition dominated by flamboyant backgrounds. His photographs of the siege of Britain were published in Winged Squadrons (1942). After the war he designed costumes and stage sets, including those for the movies Gigi (1958) and My Fair Lady (1964).